ST. ANDREW’S FESTIVAL.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 797, 3 December 1853, Page 2

ST. ANDREW’S FESTIVAL.

The Anniversary of the Patron Saint of Scotland was celebrated by the St. Andrew’s Society of Auckland, 011 Wednesday last, by a dinner at the Masonic Hotel, at which about thirty-five gentlemen were present. Mr. Archibald Clark officiated as Chairman, and Mr. J. W. Bain as Croupier. The dinner, desert, &c., were provided with an abundance in quantity, and an excellence iu quality that did credit to the resources of Mr. Posseniskie’s establishment. The following toasts were given during the evening : “ The Queen,” proposed by the chairman ; Prince Albert and the Royal Family,” by the chairman ; “ His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief,” by the chairman ; “ His Honour the Superintendent and the Provincial Council of Auckland,” by the chairman, Mr. Mitchell returned thanks ; “ The Army and Navy,” by the chairman, Mr. Patterson amt Mr, Burn returned thanks ; “ The Land o’ Cakes,” by the chairman ; “ The Sons of Si. George,” by Mr. Bain, Mr. Harp returned thanks; “ The sons of St. Patrick,” by Mr. Bain, Captain Casey, of the Ezigene, re-

turned thanks; “ The President of the United States,” by Mr. Burn, Captain Throop, 0 f the Dolores, returned thanks ; “ The Land we live in,” by Mr. Patterson; “The memory of Bums” by Mr. Allison ; “ The prosperity of Auckland’’ by Mr. Hay ; “ The Clergy and Schoolmasters of Scotland,” by Mr. Maxwell; “ The Agricultural Interests of the Province,” by Mr. J. Robertson • “ The Shipping in Harbour,” by Mr. Bain Cap 1 tain Broadfoot, of the Commodore, retnmwi thanks ; “ The Ladies,” by Captain Broadfoot • “ The Press,” by Mr. Patterson. Mr. Bum returned thanks : “ Absent Friends,” by Mr. Bum • “ The Strangers present,” by Mr. Russell - health of the Chairman,” by Mr. Mitchell- “ Sweethearts and Wives,” by the Chairman ’ The speeches were appropriate and effectivewe must confine ourselves, however, to a report of one, —that of the Chairman in proposing what we suppose may be considered the toast 'of evening—“ The Land o’Cakes.” Mr. Clark said, —

The toast which comes next in order is one which has pecu. liar claims upon a Scotchman's consideration; and the lon lie has been away from the country of his birth, the strongw are the feelings it is calculated to awaken. Not that tho feelings may not be participated in by an Englishman, an Irishman, or one from the far West,—for the love of count is a principle which I believe to be inherent in every well con. stituted mind. Some indeed there are, who profess to be s 0 much citizens of the world, so much under the influence of universal philanthropy, that they have no sympathy for one people or one country over another, but love all alike. 1 do not believe theie are many such, nnd fewer still so utterly selfish as to be faithfully pourtrayed by our great minstrel when he says * “ Breathes there a man with soul so dead, VVho never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land j Whose heart has ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand ? If such there breathe, go mark him well. For him no minstrel raptures swell. High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, Despite those titles, power, and pelf. The wretch, concenter’d all in self. Living, shall forfeit fair renown ; And doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung. Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.” Rather do I believe that every Scotsman in this room, though 16,000 miles from the land he may never again see, will re-echo the sentiment of the same minstrel in the follow, ing stanza, when he says “ O Caledonia, stem and wild, Meet nurse for a poetic child. Land of brown heath and shaggy wood. Land of the mountain and the flood; Land of my sires—What mortal hand Can e’er untie the filial band That knits me to thy tugged strand.” Now we have got, in imagination at least, to the " Land of Cakes,” and 1 rejoice to add that it is no fiction of the brain, but a sober reality, that 1 see on my right hand and on my left “ brither Scots,” despite those chiels who may be “ takin notes” with a view to print them, met far from home, to put honour upon our father land. Burns, with considerable levity, yet with great heartiness, has said of the haggis—- “ Weel art thou worthy of a grace As lang's my arm.” If he had been here to night, in our circumstances, and entrusted with the toast which your kindness has devolved upon me, I wonder with what measure he would have meted the eulogies which he would have poured forth from his burning soul, upon that land which, though limited in extent, and scanty in population as compared with the other kingdoms of the earth, has yet during her whole history, and up till now, manifested herself to be second to none in moral and intellectual greatness. Perhaps Bums would have been a partial panygerist, for assuredly no one more than he had that affection for his country’s honour and his country’s glory, which amounted almost to passion. Hear then the evidence of another son of genius—a native of Erin’s green isle, and one, too, well qualified from his education and talents to form a correct opinion of the subject under consideration. Curran, in his defence of Hamilton Rowan, says of Scotland, that she is “ a nation cast in the happy medium between the spiritless acquiescence of submissive poverty and the sturdy credulity of pampered wealth—cool and ardent—adventurous and perse vering—winging her eagle flight against the blaze of every science, with an eye .that never winks, and a wing that never tires, crowned with the spoils of every art, and decked with the wreath of every muse, from the deep and scrutinizing researches of her Hume, to the sweet and simple, but not less pathetic and sublime morality of her Bums.” Burns himself, with all his fire, could hardly have paid a warmer tribute to the land we love, than is contained in the glowing words of Curran which I have now recited. But, gentlemen,though satisfied, that if weighed in a just balance, the Land o' Cakes, as regards all great qualities, will be found to have a gravity, all things being taken into account, not lighter than that of any nation on the face of the earth, yet I do not believe that her greatness in these respects has as much hold upon our affections as the simple fact, that she is the land of our fathers—the land of our birth—the land where lie the ashes of those we held dear. Some here to night will doubtless revisit the scenes of their childhood—the most of us will not; but one thing I am quite sure of, that all of us now will join heartily together, and wish that prosperity and happiness in their highest degree may he poured out upon the “ Land o’ Cakes.”

Appropriate airs were played after the several toasts, and several Scotch songs were sung during the evening, and w r e learn that the whole passed off in the most cordial and fraternal maimer.